Being Tutored by the Teacher's Pet! Cure Assemblé Is Born!
Being Tutored by the Teacher's Pet! Cure Assemblé Is Born! is the third chapter of On Pointe! Pretty Cure! Major Events * The Rat King makes his debut. * Akane and Haruki transform together for the first time. * Yukari Murasaki transforms into Cure Assemblé for the first time. * Cure Assemblé uses Graceful Brush for the first time. Synopsis The episode starts as Haruki is performing an excerpt from Act I of Giselle for his and Akane's class. As always, Akane, Ema, and Karen are in awe at his performance and, much to the confusion of their peers, are trying hard to imitate him. Yukari notices that of the three, Ema is doing a better job of it. Akane stops to think about the upcoming competition, but her thoughts are interrupted as she notices Haruki visibly struggling to maintain his own pointe, finally falling and very nearly twisting his ankle, much to everyone's shock, before his maid, Tsubomi, gets up from where she was seated and catches him mid-fall. Gina tells Akane that even a seasoned veteran like her big brother can have trouble with pointework from time to time, but before Akane can respond, Yukari reminds her that they have history and math tests coming up shortly and asks if she's studied. Meanwhile, Gamzatti and Odile are arguing following Odile's failure in the previous episode before Queen Carabosse roars for them to stop fighting and start training while she sends another agent of hers, the Rat King, to do what they had failed to do. The Rat King demonstrates his self-centeredness by condescendingly taunting Gamzatti and Odile as he departs, causing them both to yell at him in unison. The tests take place the next day, and Akane fails both of them. Mrs. Murasaki calls Yukari over and asks her to tutor Akane. Taking on the demeanor of a drill sergeant, Yukari tells Akane to meet her in the commons at the dorm building at 6PM. Akane later explains the situation to Irina and Haruki, who say they understand and agree to try and search for the Grace Stones while she tries to improve her grades. As the study session begins, Yukari reminds her that not only is her scholarship at stake, she'll be disqualified from the competition if she doesn't get a better score on either test on the inevitable retest for people with her grades. Not wanting to disappoint Haruki, Akane's motivation suddenly increases as Yukari starts to guide her on an algebra problem. Meanwhile, at Aizawa Manor, Gina, who is practicing with her maid Yuki, asks Haruki, who is practicing with Tsubomi, where Akane is and how she's doing with her studies. Haruki replies that she's probably doing fine considering Yukari's involved ("She may be hard, but you gotta trust her to help Akane."). Suddenly, Irina shows up and whispers something into Haruki's ear. Haruki tells her he'll attend to it in about a half hour or so. Irina says to meet her in his room before leaving. After his practice session is over, Haruki returns to his room, where Irina informs him that she's detected a new enemy in the area. She explains that she'd been looking for the Grace Stones and found him biding his time. Strangely, all he did was tell her to get lost before he could pummel her, with Irina theorizing that he's simply biding his time and waiting to strike one of the Cures when she's at her busiest. Haruki promptly realizes that the enemy may strike in the middle of the retest, so the Grace Stone must be in the area where the retest is due to take place. Now, it's up to them to figure out whether the attack will take place during the math retest or the history retest, but time is running out--the retests will take place exactly one week before the competition. Later that night, Akane is going over some history stuff by herself in her dorm room when suddenly, she falls asleep. Karen quips about her situation, asking if she's going to do anything overnight in her condition. Ema walks up to her and gives her something to eat, declaring that food is essential for the human brain. Akane quickly eats it and is promptly sufficiently rejuvenated that she quickly gets back to what she'd been doing. On the day of the retest, Akane seems to be nervous as she waits to get into class, feeling something bad is going to happen, and unable to shake the feeling as her friends wish her good luck before they sit down to take their retests. Shortly into the retests, the Rat King appears and turns one of the books in the classroom into an OwarinoDansu. This causes a huge panic, to the point where the teacher in charge of the retests organizes an orderly evacuation of the room. Akane stays behind despite her objections on safety grounds... only to remember that Irina still had her Grace Pointe Shoes. Suddenly, Haruki, having already transformed, shows up with Irina and knocks the OwarinoDansu down with a Fiery Leap. Haruki remarks on how that one was stronger than the last, and Irina gives Akane her Grace Pointe Shoes. Unfortunately, Akane has just enough time to put them on and transform before the OwarinoDansu is back in action and starts quizzing her. Akane gets three straight wrong answers and gets pummeled each time. Suddenly, Yukari appears and, recognizing Akane right off the bat, tells her she'll never pass the retests like that. Akane retorts that she was doing pretty decently until one of the books came to life and scared all the students away. An enraged Yukari attempts a physical assault on the OwarinoDansu, but it grabs her instantly and threatens to papercut her if Akane gets the next question wrong. Akane recognizes it as the toughest problem on the initial math test; compounding things is the OwarinoDansu giving her a time limit. With just a split second to spare, she barely manages to blurt out the right answer. Suddenly, a light shoots out of Irina's bow and wraps itself around Yukari's ankles, and Irina explains to her what is going on. Yukari then transforms and defeats the OwarinoDansu in one blow. After everyone detransforms, Yukari tells Akane she only did it because she didn't want her performance in the retest affected by the sudden turn of events and reminds Haruki to return to his own class before departing. After the retest, Akane still gets a failing grade on the math test, but the teacher acknowledges that was at least better than the last time ("Not quite enough, but it's a start.") and gives her just enough extra credit for effort that she barely passes anyway, and to her own surprise, she gets a B+ on the history test, thus securing both her scholarship and her spot in the competition. Yukari, who had been on break and waiting outside all this time, congratulates her, and when Akane asks if she'll help her find the Grace Stones, she replies that she'll consider it, but first she'll have to try to fit it in her already busy schedule. As she walks away, she ponders what the precious stone she had found in the room could possibly be. Closing Ballet Lesson : Setting: Yukari's dorm room : Teacher: Yukari : Lesson Title: First Barre Exercises : Summary: In her ballet practice leotard, Yukari teaches plies, tendus, and rises from the barre attached to the closet door. # Plies in first position. Yukari demi plies while lowering her free arm from 2nd position to 5th position en bas. She then demi plies again, raising her arm to 5th position en avant and then straightening her knees as she opens her arm back to 2nd position. Then she does a grand plie, bending her knees deeper and letting her heels rise a bit as she lowers her arm to 5th position en bas, rising to demi plie as she raises her arm to 5th position en avant, and straightening her knees as she once more opens her arm back to 2nd position. Bending forward, she raises her arm to 5th position en haut, with her hand almost touching the floor, and then bends backwards with her arm in the same position. Righting herself, she then lowers her arm to 2nd position as she tendus into 2nd position of the feet. # Plies in second position. Yukari repeats the process in 2nd position, but instead of bending forward, she leans towards the barre with her arm in 5th position en haut and then lowers her arm to 2nd position and then to 5th position en bas as she lets go of the barre and leans away from it and raises her other arm to 5th position en haut. Righting herself, she brings her arms to 5th position en avant and touches the barre once more. "Remember, keep your feet turned out at all times, and keep your eyes trained on your working arm. There are, of course, plies in other positions, and all can also be done from the other side of the barre, but for now, let's move on to tendus." # Tendus. With her free arm in 2nd position and her feet in 1st position, Yukari tendus forward with her working leg. "Tendus at the barre come in a very specific order. Start with a battement tendu devant, done forward." Yukari then tendus to the side. "Tendu to the side next. This is called battement tendu de côté." Yukari tendus behind. "Next, do a battement tendu derrière, which goes behind." Once again, Yukari tendus to the side. "A complete tendu sequence is called en croix. Complete it with another battement tendu de côté. There are other kinds of battements which will be explored later on. Always point your toes while doing a battement, and when you tendu, keep your toes touching the ground." # Rises. Yukari rises onto her tiptoes. "When you rise onto your tiptoes straightaway, it is called an elevé." Lowering her heels to the ground, she demi plies and rises onto her tiptoes. "Do a demi plie first, and it is called a relevé." She then repeats the process, but this time she pulls her toes together. "When you bring your feet together so your legs almost form a straight line, it is called a plie sous-sus." Lowering her heels to the ground once more, she positions her feet in 5th position, then demi plies and separates her feet to 1st position as she rises onto her tiptoes. "Separate your feet, and it is called an échappé. Usually, échappés are done to 2nd position, but for this demonstration, I opened my feet to 1st position." : To close the segment, Yukari lowers her heels to the ground, her feet remaining in 1st position, and lowers her free arm to 5th position en bas. Characters * Akane Akagi/Cure Arabesque * Haruki Aizawa/Cure Jete * Yukari Murasaki/Cure Assemblé * Irina * Queen Carabosse * Gamzatti * Odile * The Rat King * Ema Ikeda * Karen Morikawa * Gina Aizawa * Tsubomi Ohara * Yuki Ohara * Akira Murasaki Music selections featured * "Act I: No. 3 Giselle's Entrance" from Giselle (Adam) - Rehearsal reduction, plays during Haruki's performance in the opening scene. * "Prologue: No. 4 Finale" from The Sleeping Beauty (Tchaikovsky) - Queen Carabosse's leitmotif, plays while Gamzatti and Odile are arguing amongst themselves right before Queen Carabosse orders them to shut up and start training. * "Farandole" from L'Arlésienne Suite No. 2 (Bizet) - When Akane learns she failed her history and math tests and Mrs. Murasaki assigns Yukari as her tutor. * "Act I: No. 9 Cinderella Dreams of the Ball" from Cinderella (Prokofiev) - As Akane explains everything to Irina and Haruki. * "Symphony No. 40 in G minor, 1st movement" (Mozart) - As Akane's first study session under Yukari begins. * "Act I: No. 2 Valse" from Swan Lake (Tchaikovsky) - When Irina shows up to inform Haruki about a new enemy. * "Act III: Variation: Kitri" from Don Quixote (Minkus) - As Akane is attempting an all-nighter. * "Danza delle ore" from La Gioconda (Ponchielli) - When Ema gives Akane some refreshments to keep her brain active during her all-nighter. * "Promenade" from Pictures at an Exhibition (Mussorgsky) - When the retest begins. * "Act I: No. 7 The Battle" from The Nutcracker (Tchaikovsky) - The Rat King's leitmotif, plays when he appears and summons his OwarinoDansu. * "Act II: No. 13 Waltz of the Flowers" from The Nutcracker (Tchaikovsky) - The music accompanying Fiery Leap. * "Act I: No. 4 Appearance of Kitri" from Don Quixote (Minkus) - Akane's transformation music. * "Prologue: No. 3 Pas de six, Variation VI: Lilac Fairy" from The Sleeping Beauty (Tchaikovsky) - Yukari's transformation music. * "Act I: No. 6 Garland Waltz" from The Sleeping Beauty (Tchaikovsky) - The music accompanying Graceful Brush; a fuller version can be heard during the Closing Ballet Lesson. Trivia * This is the first time Haruki loses his glasses apart from when he transforms; during the opening scene, they fall off of him as he collapses during a performance for his class. Tsubomi picks them up and puts them back on him after catching him. * The Rat King's condescending introduction subtly foreshadows his true nature; noticeably, neither Gamzatti nor Odile showed any signs of self-centeredness in their introductions in previous episodes, and Odile didn't taunt Gamzatti when preparing for her assignment in her own debut episode. * This is the first episode where a Cure appears without first transforming onscreen, as Cure Jete shows up when the Rat King's OwarinoDansu crashes the retest. * Akane's initial math score is 30%, the same test score Usagi Tsukino got on her test at the start of Sailor Moon. It's also the same math score Miyuki Hoshizora got at one point in Smile Pretty Cure!. * Haruki is shown to have two personal computers in his room: an Apple II desktop and a VAIO laptop. Additionally, the Apple II is shown to be running DOM Dance Notation, a computer program created by Eddie Dombrower in 1982.